Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-23

| CHAPTER XXvI-AT THE vICARAGE.
We have said, q little way back, that
some time had then passed since Amy
Brendon had heard any tidings Of Mus
grave, then with his regiment in Dublin.
| That, like his friend Lonsdale, Amy's in
tended should have ceased to write, was
q strange coincidence, which would sorely
have perpleXed and panied Melanie and
reused the jealous indignation of Reggie
but wounded self esteem led to reticence
on these matters between even these two
fast friends; so each girl had concealed
from the other the fact that they were in
precisely the same predicsment-they re-
ceIVed no letters from their lovers
though one was only at Dublin while the
other WAS in Bengal.
Melanie's came, certainly, up to GER
tain time, as we have shown the reader:
but the cause Of Amy's sorrow YVES yet to
be discovered.
Like Melanie, a gloom that was quite
perceptible had fallen upon the once
bright Amy Brendon.
show Amy is changing. What car be
the matter with herr" asked the keenly-
observsnt Reggie one day as she left the
cottage.
"She is certainly not the happy girl she
was once"
"Before that Husssr fellow eame-no!"
"Do not play such sad airs, Amy" her
mother would sometimes say. "What
is that-it is sorely depressing on wet
autumn dsy?"
"a Scottish dead march, mamma
'The Flowers of the Forest really did
not know what 1 WAS playing"
"Why?"
81 was thinking"
"You are always thinking; too much,
indeed, child" her mother replied, sadly
ana little reproachfully.
The day was wet and stormy, and poor
Amy, to conceal the misery that preyed
upon her heart, and to avoid being talked
to, was affecting to plsy melody; but as
her small hands wandered over the keys
of the piano the sounds they produced
seemed like an accompaniment to the
wind sobbipg through the rain that
drenched the vicarage garden and tossed
the branches Of the soddep trees to and
fro above the buried dead Of yesterday,
and of ages, that lay in Stokencross
yard close by.
The adjacent church was gray old ed
ifce, with 6 squat Norman tower added,
days, perhaps, OF St. Grimhald, in the
ninth century; and around it DR.. Bren-
don's sheep cropped the grass, while be-
fore it's lynch-gste were the ancient par
ish stocks, long unused, mouIdy, and
half sunk in the earth.
chow often did he call me sdarling!'"
thought Amy, as day followed day and no
letter came.
But "thst word darling comes so easy
to some mems lips" says the author Of
ga Grass Country"
81 don't see what he can have to wait
for," said her mother, grsVely; "Rorace
has $4,000 a year of maternal property,
and may be barOnet some day. He
comes OF the MusgraVes OF SCaleby Cas-
tie, in Cumberland"
Before his advent Amy had been, with
all her girlish beauty and brightness Of
spirit something like the flowers Of which
Gray sung, that are "born to blush TN
SEEM" yet how happy she had been but q
few short weeks ago. Now it seemed as
il ages had passed since she had parted
from Horace and heard from him, and
when che could little foresee the dark
cloud that was to overshadoW her loving
heart and her young lie. Whist differ
ence between then and now!
"Oh, Horace, why did you come here
to make me so miserable? Before I
knew you I was happy" Amy would
think.
"My child" moaned Mrs. Brendon,
cares5ing her, but with an angry and in
dignsnt heart.
"Perhaps his father has been unable to
settle with him; or an not, after al,
8 girl after the old gentleman's heart"
900 not humiliste yourself and US by
such speculations, Amy"
So far SO postal and Geographic arrange
ments served, Dublin was sat the door,"
as the saying is, compared with the land
whittier Montague LoRsdsle had gone;
and 80, why was not this cruel mystery
unravelled for her?
But her father, the vicar, with all his
amisbilitY, was proud man,
and now took rather hard
views Of mankind in general, aud of SOL
diers in particular, and was disposed to
blame himself bitterly for his own facility
OF disposition snd for the whole unhappy
situation.
He had been somewhat too easy-too
quiescent in the matter; but his girl was
sensible, and would get over it in time.
The matter had better be committed to
oblivion; it was dispensation-a lesson
TO her and to them in the future, though
a bitter one, doubtless, and so forth.
But, he would sd through his teeth,
Captain Horace L. L. Musgrave, who
seemed to have been simply amusing
himself, was finished rascal.
"My poor little Cir" he said some days
after, stroking Amy's thick dark hair
''snd you actually care for that fellow
stin?"
"Oh yes, papa"
"But Why-noW?"
"I csnnot help it. One cannot change
get over love like mine, as We do g
bodily ailment."
81 am afraid he is one Of those men OF
whom we SO often read and hear, who
cannot be faithful to any girl long"
"Then how wish 1 were such girl as
Hilds Tremayne."
"Why?"
zone who can fall in and out OF love es
often as she chooses; and may be, as I
have heard, engaged to two men Of once,
one at Canterbury and the other at Can
dahar."
"Ne, my dear. Thank heaven that you
are what you area true, a good, and q
pure-hearted little pet" said the old
vicar, caressing her tondly.
Would Horace ever fade out of her life?
It seemed now better that it should be
for her own peace.
It was early in August when Amy and
Musgrave had parted, and he left her to
return to his regiment and communicate
with his family the arrangements about
4 bosr rrfano lot Rod